Haruno Sakura: Senju Heiress
by Purpl3m1st
Summary: As the daughter of the legendary Slug Princess Sakura was used to trouble. As a newly appointed Konoha genin and team mate of a certain Uchiha aswell as the Kyuubi jinchuuriki she'll need to get used to quite a bit more.
1. Chapter 1

**Dislacimer: I do not in any way shape or form own Naruto**

**Konoha?**

"You want me to WHAT!" the shout rang through the inn at a very high volume, causing a girl in one of the upstair rooms to come awake very quickly...and making said girl to fall off the bed.

The girl sat up with a groan, rubbing her arm where she had fallen on the bruise she had gotten, consequence of the late night training session with her mother. Stumbling over to the adjasent bathroom she splashed ice cold water on her face in an attempt to remove the sleepy haze from her mind. A few minutes later after changing clothes and pulling a brush through her long knotted hair she made her way downstairs only to find her 'sister' standing with a worried look on her face and her mother - fully sober, but more than a little hung-over unsurprisingly - glaring at a pair of males the eleven year old had never seen before, but from the hitai-ite they wore she could identify them as Konoha shinobi. The girl frowned slightly, why were they here? And what did they do to anger her mother?

Realising none of them had noticed her presence yet she took afew steps into the room, drawing their attention towards her as they heard her light footsteps, and looked towards her mother.

"Tsunade-okaa-san?" she questioned.

The blond woman sighed and directed one last glare towards the men before turning to the girl and sighing.

"Sakura you should pack your bags. We're going to Konoha."

Half an hour later the girl, Sakura, was sitting at the front of a small cart holding their belongings next to one of the men from earlier, who had introduced himself to her as Uchiha Shisui. Shisui had short unkempt hair that was very dark brown - nearly black - and possessed strong defined features, and appeared to be in his late teens or early twenties. Sakura rather liked Shisui, after he had gotten over his initial shock of finding out that Tsunade had a daughter (he had gaped like a fish and made incomprehensible noises for over a minute) he had been very nice to her, and she could tell he loved to have fun aswell as being alot more open than her mother and Shizune had described the Uchiha clan as.

The other man, who she had found out was Uchiha Itachi and Shisui's cousin, so far seemed to be the embodiment of their describtions. Cold, unemotional and unspeaking. He appeared quite similar to his cousin, but his features were slightly more feminine and his hair was longer aswell as tied in a short pony-tail at the bottom of his neck. Currently he was walking along side the cart with Tsunade and Shizune.

Sakura shifted slightly in her seat. She was excited that they were going to Konoha and couldn't wait to find out what it was like for herself instead of from her mother and Shizunes stories. She knew that they were both from Konoha, but she herself had never been. Her father had been from a ninja clan in Takigakura, or the Village hidden in the Waterfall and she had lived there until she was five when the entire clan was wiped out, she would have died too if her mother and Shizune hadn't saved her, and after that she had travelled all over with them, but never once had they been to Konoha. Not only that but, from what she had gotten out of her mother while they were getting ready to go, they would be staying in Konoha permanently and Sakura was hoping she would be able to make friends since she had never really had the chance to form bonds with people other than her family, although she did remember a little boy she had met in Suna some years ago. She still sent letters to him on occasion, but because they never stayed in one place for long she never received any letters back...But either way she was looking forward to making friends.

"Ne, Shisui-san, what's Konoha like?"

The older male looked down and grinned."Hasn't your mother told you about her home?" he asked teasingly causing Sakura to pout.

"Well yes, but she hasn't been back there since before I was born, so things have probably changed a bit."

"Probably not by much Sakura-chan, Konoha's fairly unchanging. Anything specific you want to know about?"

She bit her lip slightly and considered his question. "What are the people like?" she asked cautiously.

"Depends on the person. But in general, the civilians are nice, the shinobi are either nice, sadistic or insane, and the males from the main clans, being the Hyuuga and the Uchiha, are ice cold bastards with ten-to-twenty foot poles up their asses - not including myself of course."

Sakura couldn't help but laugh.

"I don't know that much about the people your age, which I assume are the ones you mainly want to know about," Sakura blushed slightly "but my cousin and Itachi's little brother, Sasuke, is twelve at the moment. He is a moody, emoish boy who is apparently very appealing to the female race - he even has his own fanclub - and hero-worships Itachi, though he'll never admit to it. I could introduce you sometime if you like."

She smiled sweetly "I'd like that I think, I've never had much of an opportunity to make friends with people my age." she told him before frowning slightly and adding "but what exactly did you mean by fanclub?"

Shisui looked a little suprised and glanced sideways, noticing that there were two females glaring daggers at him, telling him without words that he would be in trouble if he answered that. "Uhhh..."

He spent the rest of the trip telling Sakura about various other people in places in Konoha, but not once did he mention the word 'fanclub' or anything related to the word.

Three hours later they arrived in Konoha.

Sakura walked through the crowded streets next to her mother and Shizune, the two Uchiha's had left shortly after they had arrived at the gates, on their way to the Hokage tower. They were attracting alot of stares, but then that didn't really surprise Sakura, after all her mother was the legendary Senju Tsunade, one of the three Sannin (aswell as the legendary sucker) and she hadn't been back to Konoha for a long time, it was only natural she would attract attention.

Sakura was however oblivious to the stares being sent towards her, mostly by the young boys around the place, and if she had noticed she would most likely have attributed it to her unusual cherry-blossom coloured hair which was currently falling in small waves to half-way down her back. She would not even considered a different possibility since, while she knew about hormones and attraction from her medical studies, the combination of her mother and Shizune's efforts to keep her as 'innocent' as possible of that aspect of life and the lack of contact she had had with others, she had never experienced it directed at herself (not that she knew of at any rate). Sakura didn't realise that in the eyes of males she was very attractive, with her long hair, flawless pale skin, petite figure, which was emphasised by the knee-length sky-coloued dress her Tsunade had forced her into that morning, and deep sapphire-blue eyes. (A/N yes I know her eyes are supposed to be green but I like blue better).

At the Hokage tower Sakura finally got to meet the Sandaime, her mothers teacher. Her first impression of him was a granfatherly man who was kind to others, but held much more power than he seemed to have. In short she both liked and respected him.

After exchanging plesentries for a few minutes Tsunade decided to get straight to the point.

"Why did you sent those two to fetch me Sarutobi? And don't give me that bull about needing a head of the hospital that you told the Uchiha's, you don't need me for that, yes I'm the best but you would call me back here during peace time just for that."

He chuckled. "Your right that isn't all of it. But before we get into that, Sakura."

The girl immediately sat straighter. "Yes, Hokage-sama?"

"This is likely to rather long and boring, so I was wondering if you would like to go do something while I talk with your mother?"

Sensing that her being here during their talk could cause problems, combined with her want to explore, Sakura readily agreed and slipped out to go exploring.

As the door closed behind her Tsunade turned her attention toward her former sensei and raised an eye-brow, waiting for him to speak.

"The academy students are to be placed in their genin teams soon."

"So?"

"I would like Sakura to be placed in one of them."

An eyebrow twitched. "Why?"

"In the letters you sent me you told me that Sakura has inherated your grandfathers ability of mokuton, aswell as his ability to have some control over the bijuu. I'm sure you remember Uzumaki Naruto, the jinchuuriki of the kyuubi. He is going to be placed on a team and I want Sakura to be his teammate in case the nine-tails starts to take control."

He stopped there and waited, half-expecting his former student to blow up at him. He was more than a little surprised when she instead sat back on the couch and blew out a breath.

"Uzumaki Naruto. Minato and Kushina's brat?" she shrugged slightly "who else are you putting on the team."

"Uchiha Sasuke as the third teammate and I'm assigning Hatake Kakashi as the sensei."

"...The pervert?"

The Hokage was starting to get worried - he had been so focussed on figuring out ways to get Tsunade to accept Naruto as a teammate of her daughter he hadn't even thought about what her reaction to Kakashi would be. "Uhh..."

Sakura was down by the entrance of the Hokage tower when she heard a loud roar from one of the higher stories.

_I wonder what that was about?_

_**Knowing okaa-san it could be anything - maybe Sarutobi didn't have any alcohol.**_

_Inner!_

_**Well it's true. We both know it Kura.**_

_Oh well. Where should we go?_ Sakura asked herself as she began to walk down one of the roads leading away from the tower.

_**Hmmm. Why don't we just go exploring? Find the training grounds, nice scenery, and of course the shops. We do need to know where we can find some hot clothes**_

_Well I agree with you there, but why would we need 'hot clothes'?_

_***Sigh* Kura, you are far to innocent**_

_?_

Deciding to ignore inners last comment Sakura did as was suggested and wandered around for the next half hour before deciding it was time to go back. There was just one problem...she didn't know which way back was.

_Inner?_

_**Don't ask me Kura, I'm just as lost as you.**_

'Oh god, okaa-san's goind to kill me!' Sakura thought as she looked around the market place where she had ended up.

"Watch Out!"

Sakura turned quickly to face the shout, only to be knocked backwards onto pathway by a larger figure and for a few seconds just lay there, trying to figure out what just happened.

"Ahh!" The figure jumped up very quickly and Sakura stared up at the person who had run into her. It was a boy, maybe a year or two older than herself with short messy brown hair and had two upside-down triangles painted in red on his face, one on each cheek.

_**He's cute.**_

_Not now Inner._

_**Fine.**_

"Um, I'm really sorry about that, Akamaru and I were going for a run and I didn't see you until just before I banged into you so...I'm Inuzuka Kiba by the way. I haven't seen you around before. Are you new?"

Sakura giggled slightly at the way the boy was looking extremely sheepish, yet at the same time very curious. Accepting the hand he offered to her she got up.

"I'm Haruno Sakura, and yes I am new. My mother, sister and I just got into town this morning." Sakura paused for a moment, seeing the cute white puppy that had just padded up to them. Kiba, noticing where her eyes were grinned.

"This is Akamaru, my nin-dog. Akamaru, this is Sakura-san, she's new here."

Smiling sweetly Sakura knelt down so she was closer to the puppy.

"Hello Akamaru, it's nice to meet you." The puppy barked in reply and licked her hand causing her to giggle.

"So anyway Sakura, are you going anywhere in particular, or would you like me to show you some of the sights?"

"Well Inuzuka-san I was just about to go back to the Hokage tower to find my mother, but I kinda got lost."

"In that case please allow me to escort you there" He said giving her a little bow causing them both to laugh. "And just call me Kiba, Inuzuka-san makes me feel old."

"Then you can just call me Sakura."

Five minutes later they arrived at the Hokage tower and Sakura said goodbye to her new friend and found her mother fuming while Shizune tried to calm her down in the entrance hall.

"Okaa-san? Is something wrong?"

Tsunade looked over and smiled at Sakura, although it was obvious she was still annoyed about something.

"No sweetie, not at all. But tell me, what do you feel about being put into a genin team?"

Sakura blinked, a genin team? Wasn't she still to young for that? But then if she had the choice... She smiled brightly.

"As long as I can get along with the people I'm put with I would love it."

"Good. Because Sarutobi and I decided that since you are could easily pass the genin exam we'll put you into one of the teams that are going to be formed tomorro."

She could feel her eyes widen. She hadn't even been here a full day and she was already going to be made a genin? Then she remembered that Kiba was going to be one of the new genin, and what he had told her about his classmates on their way to the tower. They all sounded as if they had some sort of strange personality. Hyperactive, extremely unsocial, extraodinarially shy, lazy and so on. Of course that may just be exaggeration, but if it was even half true...

She was doomed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:I do not own Naruto.**

_**Inner Talking**_

_Sakura talking to inner/Thoughts_

**Meeting Team 7**

Sakura yawned as she reached over to turn off the alarm clock ringing in her ear and sleepily wondered where she was. And why there was an alarm clock going. She almost never put her alarm clock on - mostly because she barely ever bothered to take it out of her travelling bag.

Oh, that's right she was in Konaha, and she had put the alarm on to wake her up so she could get to the academy in time to find out who she would be put with for her genin team.

HER GENIN TEAM!

Sakura sat up instantly, trying to get up in the same moment - resulting in her tumbling to the floor.

She internally sighed._ I really need to stop doing that...Okay, now what should I wear?_

Walking over to the suitcase which held all of her clothes she went through it trying to fin a good outfit, she didn't know if she'd be doing anything physical today, so she should choose a training outfit, but she also wanted to make a good impression, so...

Eventually she decided on a short-sleeved, dark blue chinese style dress that went to mid-thigh, with a slit on both sides that went all the way up to her hip and was patterned with small silver stars, along with the silver wrist-bands that doubled as her weights. Underneath she wore black biker shorts and completed the look with her favourite black boots. The boots covered her legs up to her thigh, leaving only an inch of skin showing between them and the end of her dress, and had tiny heals, not only that but they had alot of secret compartments in them which allowed her to store several kunai, shuriken and senbon all the while appearing un-armed. She also grabbed her weapons and medical pouches and tied her hair up into two low pony-tails, much like the way her mother always wore her hair.

After eating breakfast and saying goodbye to her mother and Shizune, who were both going to be starting at the hospital later she was on her way to the academy. Determined not to get lost (again) she had made sure to memorise the route and arrived at only afew minutes later.

Walking in the door she paused and looked around, eyes immediately focussing on the commotion that seemed to be occuring in the middle of the room. Two boys were glaring at each other, one of whom was crouching on the table in front of the other, while just about every female in the room was crowded around them and shooting daggers at the boy on the desk.

The first boy, who was the one sitting, Sakura assumed to be the cousin that Shisui had told her about, Sasuke she thought it was. He looked quite similar to the Uchiha's, sharing their dark hair and eyes, although his hair was styled differently...Actually it looked rather like a ducks backside, but she thought it would be better not to tell him that. He wore a blue shirt and baggy white shorts.

_**Okay...one word HOT! No wonder he has a fan club with looks like that. Not quite as nice as his relatives but who knows, maybe with time.**_

_Inner, please no comments on how 'hot' boys are. I do not want to know your perverted thoughts._

_**How can you not know what a fan club is yet know the meaning of the word pervert? Actually never mind, I blame okaa-san and her weird ideas as to what a girl our age should know.**_

Mentally rolling her eyes Sakura turned her attention to the other boy. He had short blond hair aswell as bright blue eyes and had three whisker-like lines on each cheek. His fashion sense however was attrocious. Sakura wasn't particularly fashion obsessed like she knew some girls were, but she could most definately appreciate good style and this boy had none. He was wearing a bright orange jumpsuit that had some dark blue on it - she absently noted it was almost the exact same shade as the blue of the other boys shirt.

"Eh, Sakura!"

The voice distracted her from the two boys and Sakura turned to face a little towards the back of the classroom.

"Kiba, hello. Oh and you too Akamaru."

The boy in question blushed slightly from the angelic smile she directed at him before jumping across the desk and landing beside her.

"Why didn't you tell me you were going to be here?"

"I didn't know at the time, otherwise I would have."

"Oh well. Maybe we'll be put in a team together."

"Maybe, it would be nice to be in a team with someone I alrea- Huh?"

Across the classroom the group of girls suddenly erupted into howls of anger and the two of them turned to face the sound. Kiba immediately tried (and failed miserably) to hide his laughter and Sakura just stared in surprise at the scene. From the looks of it the boy on the desk had been pushed forwards accidentaly by the boy infront of him - right into Sasuke - causing them to kiss.

After staying there for afew moments - probably due to their shock - the boys immediately broke apart spluttering and coughing, and the girls advanced on the boy in orange.

"Uh...is it okay to leave them alone?" Sakura asked the still laughing Kiba.

"It will be fine - Iruka-sensei will be here soon and he'll stop it anyway. Come on I'll introduce you to afew people."

In a different room some people including the Hokage watched the scene play out through a crystal ball.

"So that's this years top rookie? Uchiha Sasuke, Itachi-san's otouto."

"That's right"

"And the other one's Uzumaki Naruto...Your in for an interesting team Kakashi."

The man adressed as Kakashi mearly shrugged slightly.

The lone female in the room however focussed on a different person.

"Hokage-sama, is it a good idea to let that girl graduate early, she hasn't even been through the academy, and considering who she's going to be placed with..."

The Hokage chuckled slightly. "I'm sure she'll be fine Kurenai, from what her mother's told me she's more than ready for this. And as for her teammates...it is the best combination. If nothing else at least she can help the boys in line."

"If your certain." the female replied. "But if I may ask who exactly _is_ her mother, you never told us."

"Senju Tsunade"

"Wait, what!" yelled one of the males while the majority of the room was staring disbelievingly at either the Hokage or the girl in the globe. "That old drunk has a daughter!"

"That would be correct Asuma."

"Huh...As I said earlier Kakashi, you have an interesting team."

Back in the classroom Sakura was sitting inbetween Kiba and a girl she had been introduced to as Hyuuga Hinata.

Hinata had short blue-black hair with the characteristic pupil-less eyes of a Hyuuga. She was very shy, but she also seemed to be nice and Sakura had decided instantly upon being introduced that they were going to be friends and had spent most of the time before the sensei had walked in talking with her (and Kiba) and trying to get her to be comfortable with her.

She had also been introduced to a lazy boy with pineapple styled hair called Nara Shikamaru, a large boy who seemed to be constantly eating named Akimichi Chouji and Aburame Shino who was rather mysterious and had said only one word for the duration of the time since she had met him, that being hello. Sadly all the females except for Hinata had been busy attacking the boy in orange, who she had learnt was called Uzumaki Naruto so she hadn't been introduced to any of them.

The sensei, Iruka, had come in afew minutes ago and had just concluded his congratulatory speech on becoming genin, personally she had found it rather boring, a sentiment that seemed to be shared with the rest of the class based on their glazed over expressions. Now he was starting to read out the genin teams, so far no-one she knew had been called.

"Team seven. Haruno Senju Sakura," Upon hearing her name the girl perked up slightly while the people around her turned towards her.

'Senju' Kiba mouthed, seeming rather shocked at hearing her full name.

"It's my mothers surname" she murmered back as she listened to the sensei.

"Uzumaki Naruto," the boy in orange jumped up and started yelling something.

"and Uchiha Sasuke." Naruto looked absolutely horrified and slumped down in his chair. Sasuke also looked annoyed by the identity of his teammates, although he hid it a bit better. The females in the room, with the exception of Sakura and Hinata, were yelling at the sensei as to why they weren't in 'Sasuke-kun's' team, something that made Sakura shudder inwardly and silently swear never to adress him as such. She didn't know why all those girls were so fixated on Sasuke, but god that must get annoying.

After Naruto yelling at Iruka about having to be on the same team as Sasuke, and him replying that they had to balance the teams, aswell as something about him having the lowest scores and Sasuke the highest, the rest of the teams were read out. Sakura didn't pay much attention to this however as she was busy examining her new teammates aswell as recalling everything she had heard or seen about them so far.

Sasuke seemed to be a bit of an unsocial loner, he probably wouldn't be very approving of females based on how most of them seemed to act around him, and she could tell he was very self-assured and cocky.

Naruto on the other had was very hyperactive, a bit slow perhaps, but he also seemed to be arrogant and cocky - as far as she could tell the only thing the two had in common. She also recognised that he was a jinchuuriki. She hadn't met many jinchuuriki before, but based on what she did know about them it was likely that Naruto was a social outcast because of it, meaning he was most likely quite lonely. It did however explain why she was being put on this particular genin team - she did afterall inherit her great-grandfathers affinity for dealing with bijuu.

_Inner. This team is going to be hectic isn't it?_

_**Very. But in that case we'll just have to kick the boys into behaving won't we Kura?**_

_Most certainly Inner - assuming our sensei doesn't do it for us that is._

Sakura smiled, not noticing that Kiba and Hinata slowly slidding away from her a bit. One way or another she was going to make this work. And if the boys didn't agree with her on that point, well, she wasn't Tsunades only daughter for nothing.

Four hours later Sakura sat in the classroom. After the announcement of the teams there had been an hour for lunch during which she spent talking to Kiba, Hinata and a loud blond girl called Ino, before they came inside to wait for their jounin sensei's. Everyone apart from Sakuras' team had already left - even Iruka had left already. Throughout this time Sakura had mostly been talking to Naruto, she had introduced herself to Sasuke, but pretty much ignored her so she decided not to bother him for the moment.

"Why is our team sensei so. Damn. Late?!"

"Naruto, I'm sure he'll be here soon, why don't you just sit down or some - Naruto what are you doing?"

Naruto put an eraser on top of the door. "That's what he gets for being late."

"Like a jounin would fall for such a silly booby trap."

Sakura blinked. "You know I think that's more words in one go than you've spoken combined all day Sasuke-san."

"Hn."

She rolled her eyes before pausing, feeling a chakra signature coming closer. The sensei opened the door...and let the eraser fall on her head.

_**Ne, Kura, is he really a jounin?**_

_Of course he is inner, you can tell by his chakra._

_**Yeah I know but, seriously, why would he do that?**_

_To cause us to underestimate him? Or maybe just in return for us having to wait this long? Who knows._

"Ha, ha, ha. You fell for it."

_Naruto.. did he really think that he didn't do that on purpose._

_**Sadly that would seem to be a yes, but then again Sasuke seems to be thinking the same thing, so maybe we're just extra brilliant and observant compared to those two.**_

"My first impression is..hm, how can I say this...I don't like you guys. Meet me on the roof." He then poofed away.

A few seconds later the boys were pushing each other in an attempt to get up the stairs faster. Sakura sweatdropped before making the necessary handsigns and teleporting to the roof in a cloud of cherry blossoms where she found their sensei sitting on the rail and reading a book.

"Hello sensei, what are you reading?"

The silver haired jounin jumped and hurridly stuffed the little orange book into his weapons pouch.

"Ahh..." At that moment he was saved from answering by the boys banging through the door - and in the process falling flat on their faces.

When they were all sitting down the silver-haired jounin began to speak. "Well, lets start by introducing ourselves"

"What would you like to know sensei?" Sakura asked from her place inbetween the boys.

"How about your likes, dislikes, dreams for the future and things like that."

"Hey why don't you introduce yourself first - you look kinda suspicious." Naruto said (or more like yelled, Sakura was starting to understand that was his normal volume).

"Oh...me. Well, my name is Hatake Kakashi...I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes...dreams for the future...hmm. And I have lots of hobbies."

All three genin sweatdropped. _All he told us was his name._

"Now it's your turn, lets start on the right."

"Yosh! My name is Uzumaki Naruto. What I like is cup ramen, what I like even more is when Iruka-sensei pays for my ramen. What I dislike is waiting 3 minutes for my ramen to cook, and my dream, is to surpass the Hokage and then have the people of this village to acknowledge my existance!"

Sakura smiled slightly. _**He's alot different than the other jinchuuriki we've met isn't he Kura?**_

_Yeah he is inner, his spirit's impressive._

_**True. But we need to do something about that ramen obsession. We have to be in a team with this idiot and I do not want to have to deal with a steady flow of ramen talk *shudder***_

_While I don't agree with you calling him an idiot...agreed._

"Hobbies?"

"Uh...Pranks I guess."

"Next."

"Hello. I'm Haruno Sakura. I like kittens, other cute animals, the colour blue...dislikes, probably snakes, liers and being underestimated because of my gender, hair colour, age, height...well in general I don't like being underestimated." During this Sakura shot a low-level glare at each of her teammates and Kakashi to emphasise her point. Each one of them flinched slightly when it was their turn. "My hobbies are training with okaa-san or Shizune-nee-san and learning any kind of jutsu and my dream is to become as good a kunoichi and medical ninja as my okaa-san!"

"And the last person."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There's alot of things I dislike and I don't really like anything. My...I can't really call it a dream, my ambition is to surpass a certain man, no matter what."

_**Pleasent.**_

_*Sigh* He's going to be problematic isn't he._

_**Almost certainly.**_

"So that's the introductions. Tomorrow we'll start our duties as shinobi."

"YEAH! What kind of duties."

"N-naruto, volume, please."

"Eh, what about it Sakura-chan?"

Kakashi ignored that. "First we are going to do something with just the four of us."

"What is it what is it?"

"Survival training."

"Survival training! We've had enough training at the academy!"

"This isn't a normal training, this time I'm going to be your opponent." Suddenly he started to chuckle.

_**Kura, is our sensei insane?**_

_Either that or he's trying to freak us out._

_**Well if he is I think it's working - on the boys at least...and on me a bit.**_

"What's so funny?!" Naruto yelled.

"Um...well...It's just that when I tell you guys this you guys are totally going to freak out."

Sakura sighed realising what this was about, her mother had told her about the secondary genin test years ago. She decided to let Kakashi have his fun though, afterall it wouldn't hurt her to humor him.

"Why would we freak out Kakashi-sensei?"

"Out of the 27 graduates only 9 will be chosen to become genin, the rest will be sent back to the academy - this training is a very difficult exam with a fail rate of over 66%...Ha ha, I told you that you would freak out."

He added the last sentance based on Naruto's expression of shock, Sasuke's glare and Sakura's confusion.

_Inner, if only a third of people pass, wouldn't it _be _66%, not over?_

_**I don't know, but then I guess that it technically is about a 0.667% higher, but that's hardly a big deal.**_

_Oh...I'm kinda feeling sorry for the boys since they didn't know about this._

Suddenly Naruto exploded. "WHAT! NO WAY! But we worked so hard! Then what was the point of graduating?!"

"Oh that?" The jounin replied seemingly bored. "That was just to select those who have the chance to become genin."

"Uhhh...WHAT?!"

"Anyway, tomorrow you have to show off your real skills on the training ground. Bring all the shinobi tools you have...Oh and by the way, don't eat anything for breakfast. You'll throw up."

Sakura glanced over at the boys and winced at their reactions. Sasuke was shooting daggers at Kakashi, but if you looked closely you could see the slight tinge of fear and worry in his face, while Naruto...was wide-eyed with his head in his hands and his expression _screamed_ that he was freaking out majorly.

"The details are on this piece of paper, and don't be late tomorrow."

Taking her piece Sakura smiled. Tomorrow was going to be fun.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

_**Inner talking**_

_Sakura talking to inner/Thoughts_

**The Bell Test**

The next morning saw three genin waiting patiently at training ground 3...actually that's a lie, it saw one genin waiting patiently while meditating, one sitting brooding at the base of a tree and the third alterating between running around impatiently and yelling his head off about a late sensei. Occasionally he even did them at the same time.

Finally, nearly two and a half hours from the appointed time, a silver-haired jounin poofed into existance infront of them.

"Hey guys good morning."

"YOUR LATE!"

Seemingly amused by Narutos yell Kakashi just set up an alarm clock and breifly outlined the task. They had to get a bell from him before noon, or else they would fail and be unable to eat lunch. Aswell as that one of them would be tied to the stump.

Noticing the boys looks of realisation that they had been tricked into not eating Sakura barely hid a giggle. Being the medic she was Sakura had made sure to eat a good breakfast - afterall without food how could you be expected to perform at your best? Then she frowned. They were genin, and no-one could realistically expect a genin to be able to overpower or trick a jounin...ok, maybe some jounin could be tricked, but still. Kakashi was up to something.

"...If you want you can use kunai and shuriken, if you don't come at me with intent to kill you'll definately fail."

Naturally Naruto burst out laughing. "Your so slow you can't even dodge a black-board eraser! We'll definately kill you."

"In the real world, those with no talent often bark the loudest. Well, ignore me Mr. Dead Last and start when I say."

The orange suited boy was enraged by the offhand comment and pulled out a kunai and ran towards Kakashi. There was a blur of movement and suddenly Naruto was pinned with his own kunai at his neck.

"Calm down. I haven't said start yet."

Sakura could see Sasuke's shock written on his face. She could understand how he was feeling. That sort of speed was not something you see often, even when raised in a ninja family. She had seen her mother and Shizune move like that before, but only rarely, and Kakashis' speed had surprised her aswell, she had barely been able to see that he had moved until he had stopped.

"Well, it seems like you've finally decided to come at me with an intent to kill, so you've finally acknowledge me huh?..hehe, it seems like I'm beginning to like you guys. Ok. Ready...begin."

Sakura immediately used a transportation jutsu and covered her chakra signal. If there was one thing that she excelled at it was manipulating chakra. As it was one of the most essential skills for a medical ninja she had practiced it nearly since birth, she also had an inherent knack for controlling it. She was good enough that she could pinpoint where anyone was, even if they were hiding their chakra, as long as they were in a 8 mile radius; although depending on how well she knew the person and how well they could hide their chakra it could take up to half an hour. And even her mother had trouble locating her when she hid.

She flattened herself onto a branch near the top of the tree in the middle of the training grounds, she figured that their sensei would assume she had tried to get furthur away, instead of being right on top of him, and from there she could veiw most of the ground, which she had found out earlier when exploring before Kakashi arrived.

Surveying the area she located Sasuke on one of the middle branches of a tree some distance away, Kakashi hadn't moved and Naruto...Oh by the gods. Does he have a death wish?

"Come here! Come here and fight me!"

The sensei sweatdropped. "Um...your a little bit off..."

"The only thing thing off is your hair!" Naruto yelled while laughing maniacly and lunging towards Kakashi.

_**Kura, I know we agreed to go easy on him and all, but does he have **_**any**_** brain cells.**_

_Uhhh... I wish I could tell you ..._

Naruto jerked to a halt when he saw Kakashi reach into his pouch. Sakura's eyes narrowed was he grabbing a weapon? Never mind she had to figure out the real point of this test. Alone they couldn't defeat him, maybe together? But there were only two bells. That's it! Teamwork, the shortage of bells were to pit them against eachother, to distract them from what was really important.

Now how to pursuade the boys to help her...

On the ground Kakashi was crouched behind Naruto holding the same book she had caught him reading yesterday with his hands in the tiger seal...was he going to use a fire jutsu...no surely not, he wouldn't kill them. Right?

"Hidden leaf ancient taijutsu supreme technique. A thousand years of pain!"

And then he poked Naruto in the butt.

_Inner, our sensei is..._

_**Yeah...as soon as we get the chance lets hit him. Hard.**_

_It would be a pleasure._

A few minutes later Naruto was suspended underneath her by his leg from a tree branch after falling for the (obvious) trick Kakashi had set up. The jounin himself was nowhere in sight, but Sakura could feel his chakra nearing Sasuke's.

Sighing Sakura flipped herself off her branch to land infront of Naruto, who, naturally, freaked out.

"NARUTO! Relax. I was there the whole time, now listen. The whole purpose of this test is for us to work as a team, there's no other way for us to pass, okay."

"Eh, teamwork, kay."

"Good, now I'm going to cut you down, but you have to promise not to go running off."

The upsidedown blond grinned and nodded an affermative. Sakura smiled back and took a kunai out of her pouch. using it to cut the rope suspending him in the air. Being the ever-graceful person he was Naruto fell on his head.

"Ok so now we have to go find Sasuke and - "

"Eh! Sakura-chan you've got to be kidding! We can't work with that teme!"

_**Oh by the gods did he not understand what we just said.**_

"Naruto, we have to in order to pass, okay? Wait, NARUTO!"

Sakura stared as the hyperactive boy dissappeared into the bush.

_Inner, as soon as this test is over we are kicking these boys collective behinds._

_***Cheering* Kura I'm so proud of you!...now if**_ _**I could just get you to take an intrest in the male race.**_

_Huh? *Confused mind-face*_

_***Sigh* Later.**_

Frowning slightly to herself Sakura stalked off into to trees' heading towards the chakra signature of her other, and hopefully more agreeable, teammate.

Several minutes and frustrated mutterings later Sakura reached the source of the chakra to find Sasuke...buried up to his neck in earth? As annoyed as she currently was Sakura couldn't help but let out a little giggle at her seeming stoic, cocky and 'cool' teammate so obviously beaten and humiliated.

"Need a little help?"

"Hn."

"You do realise that's not a word right?"

"Hn"

"Never mind. In any case I'm pretty sure that the purpose of this test is teamwork, so do you think you can bring yourself to work with me and Naruto on this?" The pinkett asked sweetly as she swiftly dug the male out of his hole. He was still covered in dirt, but oh well, not a big deal.

"I don't need help from weaklings like you or the dobe."

Sakura's jaw dropped a tiny bit at the sheer arrogance of his statement and for the second time that day watched one of her stubborn, idiotic, and utterly _unbelievable_ teammates disappered.

Ten minutes later the three genin sat by the logs where they had started...well Naruto was actually tied to it but hey, who cares about technicalities. Kakashi stood infront of them.

"You guys look really hungry. Oh and by the way, about the training, well, there's no need for you to go back to the academy.."

"Yeah! Then, then, All three of us!" Even Sasuke looked rather excited. Sakura on the other hand rolled her eyes and shot an irritated look at the loud boy.

"He's not finished yet Naruto, so would you be quiet."

"Eh, but Sakura-chan - "

"Please continue sensei."

"Yup, all three of you...should quit as shinobi."

"QUIT AS NINJA'S! OK OK! WE COULDN"T GET THE BELLS BUT, WHY DO WE HAVE TO QUIT!"

"Because all of you, are punks who don't deserve to be called ninja."

His words managed to piss of the boy that wasn't tied to the stump, and he, naturally, tried to attack Kakashi. He failed, naturally, and he ended up being used as a cushion.

"That's why your punks. Are you guys underestimating ninja, huh, why do you think you were divided into teams for this excercise in the first place? Basically, you three...well maybe not Sakura...but you boys, aren't understanding the answer to this test.

"Answer?"

"Yes, the answer that helps you pass this test. It's teamwork. The purpose of this test is to make you fight amognst yourselves. The purpose is to see if you can successfully forgo your own intrests and successfully work together under these circumstances. Yet you guys...Naruto! You were just running around by yourself. Sasuke! You just assumed that the others would get in your way and tried to do everything by yourself. And the both of you ignored Sakura when she tried to get you to work together! And Sakura! Simply put you have no proper ninja skills what-so-ever!"

At this point the girl started to fume.

"The duties are done by the team. Of course superior natural ability is important to a ninja, but what's even more important is teamwork! Individual play that disrupts the team can put your comrads in danger..for example. Sakura! Kill Naruto or Sasuke dies!"

Obviously expecting some sort of reaction from her - like the freak out Naruto was having - he was sorely disappointed when the girl blinked slowly but did or said nothing.

Getting off Sasuke the jounin continued. "You see? If a hostage is taken you will have impossible choices and then death. You will be risking your lives in these duties. See here? Look at the numerous names carved on this stone. All of these people are heroes of the village."

"Hey, hey, hey! I've decided to get my name carved on that stone too! Hero! That's what I'll be!"

"These are all a special kind of hero."

"Oh yeah? Then what kind are they?...What?! WHAT!?"

"These are all heros who were killed on duty."

_That _dropped Narutos' spirit considerably.

"This is a memorial...my best friends name is also carved here...You guys, I'll give you one more chance, but after lunch I'll make it even tougher to get the bells. Those who still wish to challenge can eat lunch, but don't give any to Naruto."

"Huh! Why not!"

"It's punishment for trying to eat by yourself. If anyone gives him lunch they will automatically fail. I am the rules here, understood?"

He was about to poof off when a very sweet, nearly angelic, voice stopped him.

"Just one moment sensei." Sakura said as she got up and casually started strolling towards him, a perfectly innocent expression on her face. Few who happened to see her right now would notice the slight shaking of her body, and even less would realise that it meant she was angry, and out of that small group of people only a very small percentage would realise how much danger the recipient of her anger were in right now. Sadly for him, Kakashi was not one of those few.

"Refering to your earlier comment, how would you know what my ninja skills are like? You haven't seen me fight yet, and I do hope your not basing that opinion on the fact I actually figured out the reason behind this test and didn't stupidly attack you by myself - which would of course be pointless of course considering the fact you are a jounin, and if I guess rightly an ex-ANBU - or on a superficial trait or the small part of my personality you've seen, right? And when it come to lunch...whether you like it or not I am planning to give Naruto lunch, he is afterall my teammate at the moment. If you want to fail me then fine, it's not like I particularly care, I'm interested in becoming a proper genin yes, but it's not something I particularly care about just yet. Even not considering that, if I didn't give him food then he would only drag us down in whatever you've got planned for after lunch, which would completely defeat the purpose. And also sensei, you know what?"

She asked as she stood directly infront of him.

Raising the eyebrow visable on his masked face he sighed. "Oh, What?"

Sakura smiled even more sweetly. "I don't think I like you very much."

And then, taking inners' earlier suggestion, she slammed a chakra-infused fist into his gut, sending him flying out of the training ground. Turning back to the boys she noted breifly that both of them were gaping like fishes.

"A-ano, Sakura-chan...will he be okay?"

"I should certainly hope so, I didn't hit him all that hard, and a jounin of his caliber ought to be able to deal with it."

"..not all that hard." Surprisingly it was the Uchiha who whispered that in shock.

"So anyway Naruto lets cut you down so we can have luch, 'kay?"

Lying in the crater he had made on impact Kakashi reflected that he may have made a slight - or rather large - error when assessing the female assigned to his team. Based on her sweet temperament and looks he had foolishly discarded the hints of iron in her introduction the previous day - her warning not to underestimate her, and of course the fact that she was, after all, a Senju. And Senju's were notorious for producing high-level ninja, none of whom one would originally guess to be of such a level. Although not necessarily because they looked sweet and innocent, her mother was a perfect example of that.

Now however he was forced to face the reality that Sakura had both skill and potential - possibly even more than the other two - which was proved by her giving him an aerial veiw of Konoha landing him in the middle of another genins' team training session. Had it not been for the aches all over over his body Kakashi would have sighed. The other ninja were going to_ love_ the fact that he had finally ended up with a team he didn't have any good reason to fail, aswell as that someone had sent him flying, and that someone being his female _pink-haired _student was only going to ensure they never let him live it down. Silently he resolved never to let her hit him in future.

"What have we here! Well if it isn't my eternal youthful rival Kakashi!"

Yes, he would most certainly have to avoid Sakuras' fists in the future.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

_**Inner talking**_

_Sakura talking to inner_

**A C-rank Mission**

When Kakashi dragged himself back to the training grounds an hour after Sakura had hit him, he had told the genin they had passed and to meet him the next day for a training session. The group had seperated, ignoring Narutos' request to go for ramen for various reasons (needed to get home and didn't really feel like eating ramen, didn't want to spend time with the hyperactive blond, needed to lie down because his body was aching, I'm sure you can guess which is which).

At home Sakura had explained what had happened to her mother and Shizune, who had finished at the hospital for the day (or more precisely skipped out on doing anything more that day - Shizune of course under protest) and come home to see how her testing had gone. Both of the females had been outraged at some of the things the boys had done, and Tsunade had burst out laughing when Sakura ruefully admitted she had hit her sensei. Even Shizune giggled at it. Apparently a man named Maito Gai - who was according to her mother was a bit of a freak with weirdly thick eye-brows, wore a green jumpsuit and was always raving on about youth - and one of his students - who was a mini Gai - had dragged Kakashi (under protest) to the hospital to recieve treatment for his injuries.

Sakura had also started laughing when her mother told her that Gai always claimed that he and Kakashi were 'eternal rivals' and that she had accidently sent him flying into the middle of their team training session. Admittedly she should feel sorry for him, but she was under the opinion that he deserved it - especially since he didn't admit to what had happened.

After that they days took on a routine. In the morning Sakura would go to the bridge where the genins had taken to meeting Kakashi and meditate or read while Naruto ranted about something and Sasuke brooded until Kakashi got there and give them some lame ond obviously fake excuse. Then they would train for a couple of hours, usually just sparring. Kakashi had at first attempted to get Sakura to work on her chakra control while the boys sparred together, and give her easier excercises than he gave to them, but changed his mind after she pointed out that chakra control was important for a medic and therefore she had alreadly learnt it - demonstrated by her walking on water - and ignored him, simply doing the same amount of things the boys did, sometimes even more. Now when sparring they just had two matches at a time, one of them sparring with Kakashi and the other two facing eachother. The boys both learned quickly not to go easy on Sakura since, due to her advance training, if they did they would only get hurt - not that they didn't regardless.

Sakura would then heal any injuries they sustained and they would then do a couple of D-rank missions. With those finished Sakura would heal Narutos' injuries (though how he managed to get hurt while pulling weeds was something she still couldn't figure out) and they would either go to Ichiraku's or the Uchiha complex for lunch. She quite liked Mikoto, she was very nice and had taken instantly to Sakura - probably due to the lack of younger females around the complex - and while she didn't exactly like Fugaku, he hadn't done anything so far to make her dislike him either. Occasionally Shisui and Itachi would be there aswell and they always provided interesting conversation and sometimes good tips about missions or training.

They would split up after that and Sakura would usually go to the hospital for a while and help her mother and Shizune with anything they needed getting some good practice in healing trickier wounds that Sakura hadn't previously encountered during her travelling.

In the later afternoon she would go and find Hinata and they would train together for a while, occasionally with Kiba and Shino, working on different skills than the ones their senseis were teaching them. On the odd occasion Hinata wasn't around she would either train by herself or wander around Konoha getting to know the village and the people in it before going home.

Quite honestly Sakura loved her new routine, she had everything she hadn't had since she was five; a permanent home, friends her own age, waking up in a familiar place every day. But despite all of that it still made her slightly uncomfortable. She had been used to being on her own, with only her mother and Shizune for proper company, and now it was completely different. Because of their work at the hospital (aswell as Tsunades' more unsavoury habits) and her own training Sakura had little chance to have proper talks with them anymore which was more than a little disconcerting. She was slowly getting used to it though, but she still missed her old lifestyle at times.

Currently Sakura was sitting in a tree on one of the missions with her earpiece in once again slightly annoyed at her teammates inability to listen to her, well to listen to anyone really.

'What's the distance to the target?' An adult voice came through the communicater.

'Five meters, I'm in position.' Another voice crackled.

'Hn. Me too.' The third came through.

Sakura sighed. "I'm good. But you know it would be easier to just - "

Then she heard a yowl and saw a small black cat wearing a bell scratching at the boys faces.

"Never mind." she murmmered as she walked forward to where Naruto was desperately trying to keep a hold of the cat. Reaching out she carefully took her from the boy and placed her comfortably in her arms where the cat instantly calmed down and started purring as Sakura stroked her.

"Eh! No fair! That cat is evil towards us, why does it like you?!"

Sakura responded by giving the blond one of her becoming increasing common _are you an idiot_ looks. "Because, Naruto, animals are much more perceptive than humans when it comes to some things. _I_ didn't harbour any ill-intent towards her so she obviosly would like me better than she does you. Plus animals in general seem to like me."

Back in the Hokages' office everyone in the room was feeling decidedly sorry for the cat as the fire daiymos' wife walked out gushing about her precious Tora and nearly strangling/suffocating/squashing the poor cat.

The Hokage coughed softly. "Now then, Kakashis' Team 7, your next mission is...babysitting the Elders grandson, shopping in the neibouring village, and helping with the potato digging, -"

"Tora come back!"

"- or catching Tora again."

"NO, NO, NO, NO!" Yelled Naruto, obviously disgusted with the jobs. "I want to a you know, more incrediable mission! Find us a better one!"

Sakura sighed. She did agree with him - who would enjoy their current missions - but that was rather the wrong way to go about getting something better.

The was a scraping of chair legs against the ground as Iruka stood up. "You idiot! Your just a rookie! Everyone starts off with the simple missions and works their way up!"

"But! BUT! We keep getting the crappiest possable duties!"

Coughing softly Sakura cut off Irukas' reply. "With no disrespect Hokage-sama, would you mind if I put something in before the boys continue with their yelling match?" she inquired politely.

Said boys flushed as the Hokage nodded his assent while chuckling.

Inclining her head in a gesture of respect Sakura began speaking. "While Narutos' method and reasoning were a bit...different...he does have a point. We have been genin for a couple of months already and we have yet to go on any missions appart from D-ranks, admittedly this is understandable for our rank, but lower C-rank missions are also allowed for genin. Participating in a C-rank would allow us to get a better idea of what is required for higher level ninja...and it would also mean you didn't need a repeat of this for a while."

Kakashi sighed in relief, he had thought that he would be getting yelled at for this later, but Sakuras' well reasoned arguement may have saved him from that, nearly the entire room seemed to have been convinced.

"Well in that case. Team 7 I am assigning you a C-rank mission. It is to protect a certain client."

"YAY! Who is it?! A feudal lord?! A princess?!"

"Calm down, I'll introduce you to him now. Will you come in now."

Through the door came a relatively old man with a large backpack and a sour-looking face. "What's this? They're all a bunch of super brats. Especially the blond one with the stupid face. Are you really a ninja?" Naruto blinked a couple of times before realising what the man had said and lunging at said man.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Kakashi held Naruto back by his collar.

"Calm down. There's no point in killing the one we're supposed to protect."

"I am the super expert bridge builder Tazuna. I expect you to provide super protection until we reach my home and I complete the bridge." And then he took a swig from his beer bottle.

_**Oh great. Another drunk.**_

_This is going to be a looonnng mission._

Since they were leaving the next day early in the morning Sakura went home first and found anything she might need, including her full medic kit, and sealed it into two medium-sized scrolls that she could easily fit in her pockets before dropping by the hospital to inform he mother just in case neither her or Shizune made it back that night. After that she decided to go to the training ground located by the Hyuuga compound where she and Hinata usually met up.

Since she was rather early that day, due to her being let off hospital duty in order to prepare, Hinata wasn't there yet. Instead of wasting the time Sakura started to work on a new technique she had developed with some help from Shizune that would probably come in handy since they were going to the wave country.

The technique had been inspired by the way some sand kunoichi used fans to manipulate wind. Sakura had loved the way it worked and wanted to learn herself. The problem with this was that her chakra nature wasn't wind, but water and earth, the same elements needed in order for her to use the wood element. While she was still determined to learn to use it for air, at the moment she had found a way to use it in the same way for water. By infusing the water with a very small amount of her chakra, and lacing her two fans with it she could make the water follow the movements she made. Hinata had also helped her to add the finishing touches to the technique with her byakugan in return for Sakura showing her the basics, since she also had a water element affinity as they had discovered, and teaching her how to walk on water.

Both girls found the technique to be usable, and since they used small fans which could easily be folded and hung on their belts it would be useful for missions where they were unable to bring weapons.

Standing in the middle of the conveniently located lake Sakura snapped open her fans, which were a deep blue and decorated with tiny silver stars, she began to move. She was just about dancing on the surface, large streams of water following the tiniest movement of her fans. Just about finished Sakura heard a loud squeel, signifying Hinatas' arrival.

"Saku-chan that was amazing!" Hinata had dropped her stutter a few weeks after they had met - only when she was around Sakura alone though.

Said pinkette spun around to face the girl. "Thanks Hina-chan. I thought it would be a good idea to practise this today since I'm going to the Wave country tomorrow."

Her pearl eyes widened in alarm. "Your leaving?!"

Realising her mistake Sakura hurridly explained. "My team has a mission to escort a bridge-builder there. We should be back in a week or two though."

"Oh."

Noticing and understanding Hinatas' disappointment, afterall it was the first time either of the girls had had a proper female friend she smiled reassuringly at her shy friend. "I promise I'll come find you as soon as I tell my mother I'm back. I would come beforehand, but can you imagine her reaction if she found out that I was back and didn't tell her?"

Hinata giggled. Since becoming friends with Sakura she had met Tsunade several times and was well aware of both her temper and her protectiveness of her daughter. She had thanked every star out there that Tsunade had decided she liked her, even coming and help train the two girls when she got the chance. Although she wasn't entirely sure that was a good thing, Tsunades' training sessions were hell. After suffering through a couple of them Hinata had realised the reason behind Sakura being much more advanced than most ninja her age - privately she was pretty sure that Sakura could beat her cousin Neji in a fight, probably several chuunin aswell.

The rest of the session was spent with the two girls standing some distance apart on the lake and attemting to hit eachother by manipulating water. Sakura did win their mini-battle, but both girls ended up taking multiple hits.

The next morning Sakura changed into the travel outfit her mother had picked out for her. Tsunade loved playing dress up with Sakura as her doll, but most of the time Sakura didn't mind, while the clothes were usually a bit...girly, they were also practical.

The outfit she had chosen this time was made up of a form-fitting black long-sleeved shirt with a scoop neck, a short rusty-red skirt patterned with pale pink flowers, and the same red-coloured covered ninja-shoes with knee-high black socks topped off with a little white bow on each side.

Making her way to the gate Sakura paused. This was going to be a relatively long mission, so it would be a bad idea to start off on the wrong foot with their client, which would be bound to happen if Kakashi was left to get there by himself. Sighing a bit she searched for his chakra and started to make her way towards it.

It only took her two minutes to get to him, and when she did she paused. She had half expected to find him reading his novel, but instead he was standing infront of the memorial stone, his eyes fixed upon it. Suddenly what he had said to them when the first became genin rang through her mind. '_My best friends name is on there_' Oh.

"Who was he?" She asked him softly, causing him to start slightly. He obviously hadn't noticed her there. "Your best friend I mean?"

Kakashi regarded her with his one visable eye for a few moments before replying. "Uchiha Obito."

Something clicked in her mind then that she had been wondering about for a while. "So that's why your called Kakashi of the sharingan."

He chuckled softly. "Your a smart girl Sakura."

"I try. It nearly always make things easier in the long run."

"What else do you know?"

"Alot. Should we get going? I don't really want to make our client wait since we have to put up with him for a while yet." Then her face split into a wicked grin that no-one who hadn't seen it - as well as several who had - would ever believe could cross her features. "Plus I can't sense the boys chakra around there yet, and wouldn't it to be fun to tell them that they're late."

The jounin looked at her with something like shock. "Aren't you supposed to be the nice one?"

"Oh I am." She quickly assured him, using her most innocent voice. "But that doesn't mean I can't be evil when I want to be. It can be alot of fun at times, and honestly, considering the amount of time I have to spend with the three of you, and how much you try my patience, it's only fair that I get to mess with you boys at times. Wouldn't you agree sensei?"

He actually laughed.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

_**Inner Sakura talking**_

_Sakura talking to inner or thoughts_

**Journey to the Land of the Waves**

Narutos' and Sasukes' faces when they found Sakura waiting for them with the client and Kakashi were absolutely priceless, especially when Kakashi had calmly looked up from his book to state that the both of them were late and holding them up. They didn't appreciate it very much when Sakura had started laughing at them.

Of course Naruto then just had to end up fighting with Tazuna about him 'showing him no respect' despite the fact that he was the 'number one awsome ninja who was going to be Hokage, believe it'.

Deciding to ignore the squabble for the time being - they would calm down after they had walked for a while, Naruto at least wasn't used to travel - Sakura focused on sensing any chakra in the area just in case. She doubted that there would be anyone, but it was better to be safe...and it turned out that she had been right to do so. There were two signatures about ten metres behind them hidden in the trees. Attempting to be discreet about it Sakura fell behind the others until she was walking beside their sensei.

"Kakashi-sensei." she breathed, barely loud enough for him to hear her. "There are two chakra signatures in the trees behind us."

Barely noticably his reading paused and she knew he was scanning the place she had mentioned.

"Probably rouge nin. " He murmurred back. "No higher than chuunin."

"What should we do?"

"Ignore them for now but keep tabs on them. I want to know who they're after...as well as how the boys react."

"So only get involved if the boys can't handle it?"

"Yup."

A loud voice broke through their conversation. "SHUT UP YOU IDIOT OLD MAN! NO-ONE CAN TELL ME WHAT TO DO! GOT IT?!"

"Naruto," Sakura said irritibly, her nerves now tingling due to the knowledge of the danger "please be quiet."

And to no-ones' surprise, he did.

It was half an hour later when it finally happened. Sakura sensed the two move ahead of them, most likely to set up an ambush. She glanced over at Kakashi and made a slight indication telling him what they had done, he had reponded by twitching his fingers towards the boys as if to remind her to let them try and handle it.

Walking into sight of the puddle where she sensed the nin, inner Sakura decided to make her presense known.

_**Kura-chan, since it is afterall supposed to be an innocent puddle, and we do of course love water it would be suspicious if we tried to ignore it right.**_

Hiding a smirk at the evil and oh so lovely suggestion Sakura replied. _But of course inner-chan._

As she passed the 'puddle' after Naruto she deliberately, but seemingly accidentaly, stepped right into the middle of it. She was highly satisfied when she felt the chakra fluctuate in a way she knew meant its owner was in pain.

After about five steps the two nins decided to reveal themselves, one of them holding his stomache, sending chains that wrapped around Kakashi 'surprising' him from behind and tearing him apart. Sakura winced. Yes she knew that it was fake and that the real Kakashi was hidden in the bushes a little way a way, but still it looked so _real_...and so bloody.

"One down." The first said in a chilling voice, or at least what was supposed to be a chilling voice, Sakura had heard much worse and quite honestly his voice just sounded like he was in dire need of a cough drop.

And then the nins went after Naruto. Sakuras' eyes widened and she was about to attack them when Sasuke jumped into the mess, managing to deflect the chains towards the tree with a kunai and shuuriken and hold them there, preventing the nin from moving furthur away since the chains were attached to them. And then the Uchiha landed on the nins heads, using his feet he shoved them backwards into the ground. It probably would have worked had they not at that point gotten rid of the claw each of them had on one of their arms that connected the chains to them, allowing them free movement.

They ran around the two boys and headed straight for Tazuna, either not noticing or not caring about Sakura.

_***Smirks* Idiots.**_

She moved infront of Tazuna, and infused chakra into her fists. The first nin was about to hit, or attempt to hit, them when out of seemingly no-where Kakashi appeared, taking out both ninja seemingly instantly. Sighing slightly Sakura let her chakra go back to normal.

"Why did you do that Kakashi-sensei?" She asked while pouting. "I could have taken care of them."

"Ahhh, I'm sure you could have, but I was hoping to avoid another earthquake." He replied, a rather sheepish tone in his voice. Sakura frowned and crossed her arms, still pouting cutely. Their teacher then turned his attention to the boys. "Naruto, sorry for not helping you right away. I got you injured, I didn't think you'd be able to move. Nice job anyway Sasuke."

Sakura winced as she saw Narutos' reaction to his words, Kakashi really should have phrased that better.

"Hey...you alright, Mr Scaredy Cat?" Sasuke was smirking, and Sakura inwardly cursed her boys competitive nature.

"No fighting." She told them sharply, as it looked as if Naruto was going to lunge at Sasuke. "And Naruto, come over here, I need to fix up your hand."

Grumbling a bit he did as he was told and Sakura examined the cut he had gotten when the two nin had first attacked him. It seemed as though the Kyuubi had already started to heal Naruto, but there was some poison in his blood. Frowning she gathered medical chakra and finished healing the wound. Luckily it was a relatively simple poison and it hadn't spread far so she could easily heal it without the need for an antidote.

"Tazuna-san." Kakashi began, his tone mild yet scary.

"W-what is it!"

"I need to talk to you. These guys are chuunin class ninja from the hidden village in the mist. They're known to keep fighting no matter what." He said in the same tone as he finished tying the two nins to a large tree.

One of them had woken up and grunted slightly. "How did you know we were there?"

Sakura was sure he had a silly smile on under his mask as he replied. "On a sunny day like this where it hasn't rained in days a water puddle shouldn't exist."

"Sensei!"

"...and Sakura told me you were following us shortly after we left Konoha."

"EH! Sakura-chan you knew they were there?! And you didn't tell us!"

She shrugged. "Kakashi-sensei told me not to."

"What was the point of that?!"

"If I had to, I could have killed the two of them instantly, but I needed to find out who they were after. This has become a B-rank mission at least. We were supposed to protect you, Tazuna, until you had finished the bridge. This was supposed to be a simple mission. If it had been known that there were ninja after you it would have been deemed at least a B-rank. I'm sure you had a good reason for this, but it causes problems when you lie about mission details. We are now operating outside of our duties, I guess we should return to our village now..."

At this point Naruto started yelling something about not losing to Sasuke and continuing the mission, but Sakura just tuned out. It was relatively obvious how this was going to end up. Narutos' and Sasukes' stubborness wouldn't allow them to give up on the mission, even if it was dangerous, and it was almost certain that Kakashi would relent and allow them to do so as soon as Tazuna explained the reasoning behind his deception. Not that she couldn't already guess. About six months ago, shortly before they went to Konoha, she along with her mother and Shizune had visited the land of the waves briefly, it had had all three of them working basically non-stop for a fortnight trying to heal any and all medical problems of the community. They had encountered Gatou at one point aswell. Sakura allowed her lips to quirk upwards in a small smile as she recalled her mothers reaction to him telling them they weren't allowed to continue healing people. Gatou had figured out quite quickly that he couldn't forbid them from doing anything.

As she had predicted a short while later they were on a ferry taking them across the straight between the land of the waves and the mainland.

"We'll be there soon." The man steering the boat told them quietly. "Tazuna, it looks like we've avoided detection so far, but just in case we'll take the route with more vegetation. It will make us harder to spot."

"Thanks." The old man said gruffly.

They finally got off the boat at a small deserted peer in the middle of no-where. As they walked Naruto kept throwing kunai or shuuriken at random bushes. Sadly, at least for Naruto, there wasn't anything in the shrubbery and he only acheived making Tazuna annoyed, Kakashi worried about everyones safety around him, Sasuke act superior, and Sakura wonder how she got cursed with having to deal with such unmanageable males.

"THERE!"

Kakashi and Sakura sighed in unison and walked over to the bush to see if Naruto had actually hit anything this time. As well as to collect the shuuriken. As it turned out there was something there. A bunny.

Sakura actually squeeled as she knelt down and picked it up, causing the boys to look at her oddly, so far they hadn't seen her act like this.

"It's so cute!" she exclaimed, cuddling the fluffy white rabbit to her chest. Now may be a good time to mention that no, Sakura did not overlook the fact that no rabbit would have white fur at this time of year unless it was kept in captivity. While picking up the bunny she had done a scan of the area to find two new chakra signatures behind them, but since Kakashi had also noticed that fact, and was ready for an attack, she really didn't need to do anything, in fact, it would be suspicious if she did. Plus it really was a cute bunny.

She didn't need to wait long for the new assasins to reveal themselves.

"Everybody get down!" Kakashi yelled. Instinctively Sasuke and Tazuna both obeyed and Sakura dragged Naruto down beside her, leaning down so she was nearly kissing the ground as she did so...with the bunny still held against her chest. It was just in time aswell, since less than a second afterwards she felt wind against her back, generated by something flying overtop of her.

Cautiously she sat up, arms unclasping to allow the rabbit to hop away as she did so. She heard Naruto whining next to her as he to lifted his head, but her eyes were focussed on the sword that must have been what had almost hit them stuck in the side of a tree. And standing on top of it was a man she had never seen outside of bingo books. _Momochi Zabuza._

_**Theatrical much? I mean seriously, standing above us on the handle of a gigantic sword sticking out of a tree. Not to mention shirtless...although I can't say I mind that very much, look at those muscles!**_

_Inner, not a good time._

_**But - **_

_INNER._

_**Fine.**_

"Well well. If it isn't the missing-nin of the mist, Momochi Zabuza-kun."

Naruto was about to leap at the man but was stopped by Kakashi placing a hand infront of him preventing him from moving forward.

"Eh. Sensei."

"Don't Naruto." Sakuras' voice was soft, but she knew he heard her. "You don't stand a chance against him yet, he's on a completely different level than those two nin from earlier."

"Sakura's right. Everyone get back, this fight is going to be tough...unless I do this." Kakashis' hand pushed up the hitai-ite on his forhead, revealing his other eye. An eye that was red and black.

"You appear to be Sharingan Kakashi. Sorry but, the old man is mine."

"Surround and protect Tazuna. Do not enter the fight."

"Ah. I already get to see the famous Sharingan. I'm honoured." Zabuzas' words were at odds with his tone.

Narutos' patience was used up as he exploded into speech. "Sharingan, sharingan. What the Hell is that?!"

Sakura frowned, honestly can't he see that now was not the time? Nevertheless she could see that on her other side Sasuke also wanted answers so she decided to give them a brief explanation.

"Sharingan is the doujutsu, or eye technique, that is the kekkai genkai of the Uchiha clan. It supposedly can read aswell as defeat any kind of taijutsu, genjutsu or ninjutsu, and it can also copy a technique after only seeing it once although just because the techniques been copied doesn't mean it can be used, that depends on the capabilities of the user. The only thing it is known not to work on is other kekkai genkai. Kakashi-sensei is the only person outside of the Uchiha clan to be able to use it due to...circumstances that happened a long time ago."

Zabuza laughed, and Sakura had to stop a shiver going through her body. She had rarely been in proper combat, when they did encounter bandits or similarly brutal characters while traveling Tsunade and Shizune had always tried to keep her out of the fight entirely or make sure she was faced with the easier opponents. Never before had she faced someone who wanted to kill her, someone who she knew could kill her, since, for all that she was stronger than any normal genin, she couldn't hope to win against a jounin level ninja. That she knew. It didn't help that she had seen his records, and when she compared them to Kakashis' they were on a similar level. This was going to be a hard fight for the two men, and Sakura didn't know who would win. Not only that but there was still one more chakra signature in the trees, and she didn't think it was friendly.

"Your right little girl." That statement however made her more than willing to fight him no matter what the risks, if nothing else she could probably land a good hit at least. Luckily he then turned his attention back to Kakashi. "When I was a member of the hidden mists assasination team I kept a handbook, it included information about you. And this is what it said. ' The man who has copied a thousand jutsus, Copy Ninja Kakashi.' Now, lets end the talking. I need to kill that old man. But, Kakashi, it seems I need to beat you first."

He was a blur of motion, nearly invisable he was so fast, but in an instant Zabuza was on top of the lake, his sword strapped to his back as he released large amounts of chakra for what Sakura assumed was a jutsu of some sort.

She was proved right by his next words. "Ninpou...Hidden Mist no Jutsu."

And with that he disappeared, leaving only a leaf in his place. The mist began to thicken and Sakura searched for his chakra, ignoring Kakashis' explanation to the boys and Tazuna, as well as Zabuza' voice reciting different body parts. It was then that she realised that the mist was infused with his chakra, making the task exponentually harded. On both sides of her the boys were sweating in fear, aswell as shaking at the intensity of the atmosphere, not only the sheer power in the air, but also the intent to kill that infused it.

"Don't worry. I'll protect you guys with my life, I won't let my comrads die." That was Kakashi-sensei, trying to reassure them. Sakura focussed harder and managed to identify where he was only an instant before he attacked, and in that brief moment she ducked beneith the sword that had come between her and Tazuna, ramming into him sending them both crashing down to the ground away from where Kakashi had just stopped the mist-nins strike.

Kakashi drove a kunai into the chest of the other man, who turned out to be nothing but a water clone, from behind Zabuza then swung his sword through Kakashi, who like the other was mearly made of water.

The battle had begun.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

_**Inner Sakura talking**_

_Sakura talking to inner_

**Jounin Battle and Training**

"It's over." Kakashis' voice cut through the tension in the air, so thick you could almost touch it. Naruto immediately started to cheer, but Sakura kept her eyes locked on Zabuzas' frame, her instincts, aswell as her knowledge of mist ninjas' methods, screaming at her that something else was going to happen.

"He he he. You don't get it do you?" She could see Kakashi tense at the missing nins' words and laughter. "There is no way you can defeat me with your monkey-like imitations. Hehe, but that was impressive of you. At that time you had already copied my water clone jutsu, you had your clone say those words to attract my attention, while the real you stayed in the mist and watched. Nice plan. But, I'm also not that easy!"

Suddenly he was behind Kakashi, the person that he had been holding a kunai to the throat of turning out to be yet another clone. Zabuza swung his sword, but Kakashi managed to crouch in time for it to just go over his head, before the mist nin kicked the other man, sending him flying into the lake.

Sakura watched the jounin struggle to get up and out of the water. It seemed as though he was having much nore trouble than he should have...almost like the water itself was trying to keep him down.

"Hehe, fool." Zabuza appeared behing Kakashi once again. "_Water Prison no Jutsu_!"

The water around Kakashi rose up, trapping him within a large globe, Sakuras' eyes widened and she immediately started to strategise as to how to get him out. She recognised the jutsu and knew that Kakashi was unlikely to be able to get out of it on his own, but to get him out they would need to get Zabuza to take his left arm out of the water since that was what was sustaining the jutsu.

"Now Kakashi, we can finish things later. First I'll take care of them. _Water Clone no Jutsu_. Hehe, wearing those headbands and acting like ninjas, a real ninja is someone who has survived numerous brushes with death. Only when your good enough to be listed in my handbook can you call yourself real ninja. Your not ninja."

From within the water prison Kakashi began to yell. "Just take Tazuna and run! You have no chance of beating him. As long as he's keeping me trapped in this prison he can't move! The water clone can't go very far from his body, just run away now!"

Zabuzas' clone disappeared as his real body laughed. It reappeared infront of Naruto, sending a kick towards his chest. Moving as fast as she possibly could Sakura managed to catch it in time and, using her chakra enhanced strength flung him backwards towards the lake, although he managed to flip over in time to land neatly on the surface.

"Kakashi-sensei, while I appreciate the sentiment, do you really think he would let us get away? While the clone can't go too far, he's still faster than us, so running away would be pointless. Our only chance to get away from him is to make him let you out of your prison. Wouldn't you agree boys?"

As she said that she glanced at each of them, letting them know she had a plan and with a few small gestures that to anyone who didn't know her well wouldn't pay any attention to telling them what it was. In return she got a smirk from Sasuke and a 'yes Sakura-chan!' from Naruto. She smiled.

"Tazuna-san, could you please stand back for a little while?" The man made a slight grunt of acknowledgement and she heard his footsteps moving backwards.

"Hehe, trying to be brave little girly? Still playing ninja? It's not going to work you know." Zabuza's clone ran forward, his sword in his hand, either missing or ignoring Sakuras' smirk and clenched fist. For him that was a big mistake.

Sakura counted down the metres as he came closer. _10...8...6...4...NOW. _She slammed her fist, with as much chakra as she could spare into the ground infront of her, directing it so neither her boys or Tazuna would experience more than a medium quake. The ground cracked apart, leaving a huge fissure and creating a large wave on the lake. The clone was on the ground, covered in scratches and half buried by rock, obviously not having expected Sakura to possess such strength, but after only a moment he got up again. At the same moment the two boys ran forward, Naruto creating a huge amount of shadow clones that surrounded the mising-nin, while Sasuke pelted him with kunai and shuuriken.

Naturally Zabuza managed to dodge the weapons and defeat the clones relatively easily, but that was what they had been betting on, so it didn't really damage their plans...although it might have damaged the boys pride a little at how easy it was for him. He slammed the end of his sword into what appeared to be the real Naruto, sending him flying backwards. As he soared through the air he threw a demon shuuriken, which was several times bigger than a normal one to Sasuke, who caught it and jumped into the air, throwing the shuuriken towards the clone, who, from Sasukes angle was in line with the real thing.

"Hehe, a shuuriken won't work against me!" The clone appeared surprised when the shuuriken flew by the clone harmlessly. "But, I see your aiming for the real me. That's not going to work!"

He caught the shuuriken in his free hand, before his eyes widened as he realised ther was another on hidden in the shadow of the first. Zabuza attempted to jump up so it would fly under him, but found his legs stuck in one of Sakuras' water jutsus, preventing him from moving his legs. As he realised this he ducked instead and the shuuriken went overtop of him. While that would have put him out of danger the genin had one last trick up their sleaves. Just as Zabuza started laughing the second shuuriken was surrounded by a cloud of smoke and transformed back into the real Naruto, who threw a kunai at the mist nin from behind. In order to dodge it Zabuza had to take his arm out of the water prison which he did, negating the jutsu and freeing Kakashi.

Sakura allowed herself a little smirk. "Got you." she whispered. Then her eyes went wide as she realised what Zabuza was about to do. Enraged by what had just happened the nin was going to throw the shuuriken he had caught at Naruto, and considering Narutos' skill level he wouldn't be able to dodge.

Thankfully her worries were for nothing as before he got the chance to send it flying a dripping wet, and looking seriously angry, Kakashi blocked him. She winced, yes it stopped him, but surely there were easier ways to have stopped that strike, and ways that wouldn't have involved him cutting his hand. Sakura was going to have enough to heal between the lot of them and she wasn't particularly happy about him adding unnecessary injuries to the stilll-growing list.

"Great plan you three, you really have grown up."

"Hehe, I got distracted and released the jutsu." All three genin glared at him, as if.

"Wrong! You didn't just release it. You were forced to release it. I'll tell you I don't fall for the same jutsu twice. What will you do?"

Neither nin did anything for a moment, but the at the same time they jumped apart in opposite directions and slamming their hands together in the same seal.

Realising that they were most likely doing some sort of water jutsu, and that Naruto was still lying in the water, Sakura quickly ran forward, staying out of the adult ninjas line of sight as she waded into the water. They were still making seals, the same ones at the same time. Naruto didn't seem to be aware of the danger he was in and was instead watching the two with intrest...or he was until Sakura grabbed him by the back of his jumpsuit, put her hand over his mouth to stop him from drawing attention to them and started dragging him backwards as fast as she could.

She just managed to get the two of them out of the lake when two voices rang out.

"_Water Dragon no Jutsu_!"

Out of the water two dragons rose, one by each of the ninjas' feet, and hurled towards eachother clashing in the middle and destroying them both. The water dropped causing a huge wave outwards that soaked all three genin aswell as Tazuna. In the middle of the lake Kakashi blocked Zabuzas' sword with his kunai, and they were both pushed backwards before they both started makings the same seals for a jutsu once again, but this time instead of releasing the jutsu at the same time Kakashi released his jutsu before Zabuza had the chance.

The resulting explosion of water caught Zabuza up slamming him into a large tree. That was when Sakura felt the other chakra move and three senbon buried themselves in Zabuzas' neck, seemingly killing him.

"Hehe, your right, he's dead." The others directed their attention towards the tree where a person who seemed to be about the boys age sat wearing a white mask with a swirl on it. Sakura however kept her eyes fixed on Zabuza. Something was wrong with what just happened, a senbon wasn't able to kill a person unless it pierced one of a small amount of organs in the body, the exception to that being poison, but he 'died' to fast for it to have been that, there wasn't any time for it to get into the blood stream.

Kakashi quickly checked Zabuzas' pulse before confirming that he was dead. Her eyes narrowed. That was next to impossible, so what exactly did the boy do?

"Thank you very much." The boy said, bowing slightly from his perch on the tree branch. "I have been searching for the opportunity to kill Zabuza for a long time."

"That mask...your a hunter-nin."

He inclined his head towards Kakashi. "Impressive, you are correct."

"Eh, hunter-nin?" Sakura closed her eyes and sighed. Honestly did Naruto pay attention to anything in the academy, she hadn't been but she was sure that would have come up in the ciriculum.

The boy replied anyway. "Yes. It is my duty to hunt down missing-nin. I'm a part of the mists hunter-nin team."

"WHAT THE HELL! WHO ARE YOU?!"

"Don't worry Naruto, he's not our enemy."

_**I wouldn't be so sure of that Kakashi, don't judge the guy just yet.**_

_You do realise that he can't hear you inner?_

_**What's your point?**_

_Sigh_

"I'M NOT ASKING THAT! That Zabuza...THAT Zabuza was KILLED! A guy that strong...was killed by a KID! A kid not much different from ME! We look stupid! HOW CAN I UNDERSTAND THAT?!"

"Well...I know how you feel." Kakashi stated consolingly as he walked up to them and ruffled Narutos' hair. "But that's reality. In this world there exist kids that are younger than you, but stronger than me...Sakuras' getting rather close to that standard herself if you paid attention."

All three genin paused at his roundabout compliment to Sakuras' skills.

"Um...Thanks I guess. But I don't think I'm as good as your suggesting...Why are you two agreeing with him?" The last statement was made to her two teammates both of whom had started nodding.

Just then their attention was redirected to the 'hunter-nin' who teleported himself to the ground next to Zabuza.

"Your battle is now over. I must now dispose of this body since it hides many secrets. Farewell." And then he made a seal and disappeared.

"Eh! He's gone!"

_**Really? I didn't notice.**_

_No need to be mean._

Kakashi sighed and turned back to them, pulling his hitai-ite back over his sharingan eye as he did so.

"Haa, now we have to get Tazuna-san back home. Lets go."

The man in question started thanking them profusely and offering them a room in his home to rest in. Before they could start walking however Kakashi fell forward in a dead faint.

"EH! Kakashi-sensei what's wrong?! Are you okay?! Is there any-"

"Calm down Naruto, he's probably just exhausted. It was afterall a hard fight." Sakura walked over to their unconcious sensei and used her chakra-enhanced strength to lift him. "He should be alright after a bit of rest. Lets get going now kay?"

"Okay Sakura-chan."

It was two days before Kakashi woke were at Tazunas' house in the town, Sakura having carried the unconcious jounin the whole way. Despite having woken up however he was definately not fully healed, and probably wouldn't be able to move without assistance for four days mininum. Currently they were sitting in one of the rooms talking about what was going to happen next.

"Well we defeated that strong of a ninja this time, we should be safe for a while." Tazuna stated.

"Who was that masked kid though?"

Kakashi sighed slightly and began to explain. "That's the mask worn by the Hidden Mist hunter-nin assasination team. They are also known as Body Erasers. Their duty is to completely destroy the body without a trace. A ninjas' body has within it secrets of the villages ninjutsu, information on chakra types, herbs, and other things that will reveal information about the village. For example if I dies the secrets of the sharingan could be revealed. You have to be careful that other villages won't steal your jutsu. A ninjas' body can reveal important information. So, by killing and disposing of missing-nin that have abandoned their village, the hunter-nins are preventing the leakage of this information. They are specialists who guard the villages' secrets."

"But that boy wasn't a hunter-nin was he? If he was he wouldn't have aimed for Zabuzas' neck, and the points he hit were such that he would be put into a state of temporary death." Everyone jerked around to look at Sakura.

"Correct. Body Erasers generally dispose of the body right there. He took the body with him, and combined with what Sakura just said about the points that were hit - and I'm going to trust her on that since her medical knowledge is much better than mine - it's almost certain that Zabuza is alive." Ignoring the way some people (Naruto and Tazuna) were freaking out he continued. "And since it's likely that he will try again you three need to recieve training. But obviously this is just training until I get better, you guys aren't going to be able to kill him without me."

"If Zabuzas' alive he could attack us at any moment. We need to protect Tazuna instead of training." Sasuke stated bluntly.

"Not quite Sasuke, after being put into a temporary death state it should take a while to recover. Sakura, since you know the most about this topic would you mind giving us an estimate?"

The girl in question nodded. "Well the temporary death, combined with the injuries and chakra exhaustion he recieved from his fight with Kakashi...normally I would say that it would take between a week and ten days, but the boy who saved him obviously knows how things effect the body and probably knows what herbs to use to spped up his recovery, and those herb are quite common around here. Also considering the part of Zabuzas' personality I've seen he isn't likely to want to stay in bed for that long. So most likely we have between four days minimum, a week at the most."

"Good, that gives us a bit of time to work with."

And that was how half an hour later they found themselves standing in the middle of a forest where the training was going to occur. Kakashi stood infront of the other three leaning on the crutches that Tsunami, Tazunas' daughter, had found for him.

"Okay, now we will start the training. But before that I want to talk about the shinobi ability, chakra."

"What's chakra?" Naruto just had to ask, resulting in him having a lump on his head and a quick lecture from Sakura about the importance of listning along with a explanation on what chakra was.

"Um, I didn't exactly understand that complicated explanation," Sakura let out a heavy sigh, "but isn't it something you learn with your body?"

"The dobe is right, we can already use jutsu."

"Nope!" Sakura was getting the feeling that Kakashi was enjoying this. "You boys aren't using chakra properly."

"WHAT!" Naruto recieved another lump on his head. Briefly he wondered when his teammate had gotten so violent.

"Well...to put it simply, you boys are not using it effectively. Even if you are able to release a high amount of chakra if you can't control it properly then it will result in the jutsu being weak or not work at all. And by wasting energy you won't be able to fight as long or as hard. This is a weakness. So I'm going to teach you to control it. Through very thorough training."

"What are we doing?" The Uchiha asked in a bored tone, obviously thinking this would be a waste of time.

"Hmm? Climbing trees!"

"CLIMBING TREES!"

"Yup! But this isn't normal tree climbing, you'll do it without using your hands. Sakura would you demonstrate?"

The pinkette smiled and walked over to the closest tree before climbing it with ease. When she got to one of the middle branches she walked along it upsidedown before flipping off it and landing beside her teammates who had both been paying close attention.

"You understand now? Gather chakra in the bottom of your feet and start climbing. This is something that needs you to be able to use chakra well. Now listen closely. The main point of this training is first to teach you to control chakra, to bring the proper amount to the proper area. As I said earlier this is an important aspect of using jutsu, this is something even skilled ninja have trouble with. The amount of chakra must be exact, to little and you won't stick to the tree, too much and you'll be forced away from it. And since the feet are said to be the most difficult part of the body to mold chakra in, theoretically if you master this you should be able to perform any jutsu. The second thing is to develop the stamina needed to control chakra properly. Depending on the jutsu, doing so can be very difficult. And a ninja will usually be gathering chakra during battle and moving, making control even more difficult. Well me talking all day isn't going to accomplish anything, this is something you need to learn through action."

He threw a kunai infront of each of the boys. "Use these to mark how high up you get. Then try to get higher than that mark the next time. You boys won't be good enough to just walk up the tree at first so try running at it to gain some momentum. Got it?"

"This training is nothing to me! I could do it before breakfast!"

_**Will he even deflate that ego?**_

_It is possible inner, we did it on our first try._

_**So? Neither of them will, they don't have enough patience or attention to detail. On the plus side it might deflate those egos, a little bit at least.**_

"Why don't you stop bragging and go pick a tree."

As the boys did as they were told Sakura looked at Kakashi.

"Sensei, what will I be doing?"

"Well Sakura, how would you like to learn some ninjutsu?"

She smiled.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

**The Land Of The Waves**

Sakura sighed as she sat on the edge of the bridge - the part of it that was already built at any rate.

"You sure seem bored sitting by yourself." Tazuna commented as he passed by. "Where's the blond kid and the other one?"

"They're training." She replied smiling at the old man.

"You don't have to?"

"I've already recieved more advanced training than the boys from my mother, since she's one of the sannin. Kakashi taught me the basics of a couple of jutsus yesterday, but there isn't enough time to polish them on this mission, and it's best if someone is here in case Gatou has hired other ninja."

Tazunas' eyebrows rose at that. "A sannin? Tsunade?"

"You know of her?"

"Does any one not?"

Sakura laughed softly. "My teammates didn't - not until they met her at any rate. Is there anything I can do to help?"

Tazuna looked slightly increadulous. "Can you help?"

"Well, not with the actual building." Sakura admitted. "But I do have my mothers strength, so I can move things for you, or something like that."

While he still looked slightly skeptical he asked her if she could move a pile of timber to the other side of the bridge for him. She readily agreed and began moving things, only stopping when she saw one of the workers confronting Tazuna. Putting the wood she was carrying down she walked over into hearing distance.

"This is the bridge we started building together" Tazuna was saying. "Believing it would bring resources into our poor country."

"_But if we lose our lives_!"

"It's already noon, lets stop for today. Giichi...you don't have to come tomorrow."

Five finutes later Sakura and Tazuna were walking through the town. Sakuras' eyes were downcast and her medic insticts were screaming at her that she had to help these people.

"Tazuna, would you ming telling the boys I'll be back in a couple of hours?"

"What, why?"

She managed to give him a half-hearted smile. "Even if I'm not going to be here for long, I still want to help. So that's what I'm going to do."

"You'll be able to handle yourself?"

"I'll be fine, I promise."

He nodded. "I'll tell them."

Sakura only got back to Tazunas' house a couple of minutes before dinner was ready, and even then it was only because Kakashi had come to get her. She was starting to run out of chakra, but she was mostly satisfied with the days work. She had managed to heal dozens of people, and had used supplies that she had bought or found in the woods to make a large batch of supplements which she had distributed around the worst off in the community. Hopefully it would be enough to keep them healthy - or at least not on the verge of death - until the bridge was finished and they could get more food.

The boys had immediately accosted her, wanting to know where she had been and if she was alright. It had taken a while to calm them down, it seemed both of them had taken on a sort of overprotective brother role when it came to her. While this was amusing, and Sakura didn't really mind it too much, she did think it might cause problems later if they took it too far.

Diiner itself was...well...moderately unpleasent...for Sakura; not because of the food, Tsunami was a good cook, or the company, that was fine. It was the fact that the boys kept stuffing their faces before throwing it all up that managed to disturb her. Soon enough however she went, as they called it, 'demon Sakura' on them. This just meant that she smiled sweetly at them while asking them to eat properly and exuding a dangerous intent.

The way the two boys immediately complied - and were obviously, although it was hidden rather well by Sasuke, terrified to disobey her - and apologised to them all, was amusing to the rest of the company. Even Inari, though he probably wouldn't want to admit it.

It was shortly after that Skaura noticed the framed picture on the wall. It was of Tazuna, Tsunami, and Inari, but the top corner of it had beed torn off, aswell as the person in it. Glancing around the table at the three others in the picture she wondered if she should ask or not. Eventually she decided to do so.

"Why do you have a torn picture on the wall? Inari-san was staring at it all through dinner. It seems like someone was purposely removed from it."

It would have been impossible not to notice the effect this had on them.

"It's my husband." Tsunami told her quietly after a few moments of silence.

"And" Tazuna added. "The so called Hero of this country."

Inari slammed his cup down on the table and quickly walked out with Tsunami calling after him.

"Father! I've told you not to talk about that man infornt of Inari!"

"What's wrong with Inari-san?" Sakura asked hesitantly, thinking she probably shouldn't have asked in the first place.

"...Inari had a father, but not related by blood. They were very close, like a real father and son...Inari would laugh alot back then...but, since the incident with his father Inari has changed." Tazuna went on to explain how Inaris' father, Kaiza, had saved his life and had later saved a large portion of the village by diving into rapids so he could tie a rope to the gate and the others could pull it shut. And then how Gatou had publically excecuted him as an example to he rest of the community not to go against him.

There was silence for a few seconds after his tale was finished. Then Naruto got up and started to go towards the place they had been training, ignoring Kakashis' warning not to go train, instead proclaiming he was going to prove heros' existed. Sakura smiled slightly as he left, Naruto had alot of determination, she was sure he would manage it.

The next morning Naruto still hadn't come back - he had been training all night long. Telling the adults and Sasuke where she was going so they didn't worry, Sakura went to go make sure he wasn't too badly off. When she got there she sighed. Naruto was passed out on the ground, covered with cuts and bruises. Putting down the basket that contained his breakfast she began to heal him. When she was almost finished she felt a chakra signature and stiffened. It was the same chakra that she had felt from the masked boy when he had taken Zabuza.

Slowly she turned, and looked at the boy that stood there. If she hadn't already been sure it was a boy, there was a high likelyhood she would have thought him to be a girl. His hair was dark and fell mid-way down his back, while his features were all very feminine.

"Hello." The boy said.

"Hello." Sakura answered back, her gaze wary.

"Is there a problem?"

"That depends, are you going to give me one?" The boy seemed slightly surprised but recovered fast.

"I don't plan on doing so at the moment if that's what you mean."

"Then I'm fine. A word of warning though, while Naruto and Sasuke - my two teammates - may be idiotic and annoying I do care about them, and if they get hurt because of you I promise I will return the favour twice over. Understood?"

The two pre-teens stared at eachother, evaluating how much of a threat the other would be, and if, for the time being, they could trust eachother. Shortly the boy nodded and Sakura smiled sweetly, before going back towards Tazuna's house.

Dinner that night was much less disgusting than the previous night. Naruto and Sasuke came in half way through, holding onto eachother for support, and covered in more injuries aswell as a heap of dirt. They announced they both made it to the top. Kakashi then told them that the next day they would be going with Sakura to the bridge to protect Tazuna, and Tazuna told them happily that the bridge was almost complete.

"WHY DO YOU GUYS BOTHER TO TRY SO HARD?! NO MATTER HOW HARD YOU TRAIN YOU'RE STILL NO MATCH FOR GATOUS MEN! NO MATTER WHAT GLORIOUS CLAIMS YOU MAKE OR HOW HARD YOU WORK. WHEN FACING THE STRONG THE WEAK ONLY END UP GETTING KILLED!" Inari suddenly burst out, shocking everyone, and crying at the same time.

"Whatever kid." Naruto replied. "I'm not like you."

"I'D HATE TO BE LIKE YOU! YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THIS COUNTRY AND YET YOU'RE BEING SO NOSY! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ME?! I'M DIFFERENT FROM YOU, YOU'RE ALWAYS CLOWNING AROUND AND ACTING SO CHEERFUL, YOU DON'T KNOW HOW HARD LIFE CAN BE!"

Sakuras' eyes went wide. This was not going to end well.

"So it's okay for you to pose as the star in a tragedy and cry all day? _Just keep on crying forever you idiot_. You little _sissy_."

Inari stood shocked for a moment before he started to cry harder and walked out. Seeing as Kakashi was planning to follow him Sakura shook her head slighly so he could see it and followed Inari herself.

She found him sitting on the deck over the water outside.

"You mind any company?" She asked softly, not wanting to provoke him again. She knew that wasn't what he needed right now. When he shook his head a bit she lowered herself onto the wood beside him, her legs swinging slightly as she stared up at the starry sky.

"Naruto didn't mean what he said the way it came out you know. He just doesn't know how to control himself properly when it comes to things like this, and you struck a nerve for him...Tazuna-san told us about your father you know. We know you've been through quite a bit. But the thing is you aren't the only one who grew up without a father, Naruto and I did too." Inari looked over at her, startled. "When I was five my dad and almost his entire side of the family were killed, and Naruto probably had it rougher than either of us. He was an orphan since birth you see, and as far as I know until he was placed on the team with me and Sasuke he never had any friends, infact I think he was bullied quite alot...but despite that he has never complained. I've never seen or heard about him crying either. Instead he does his best to change things for himself, to get people to acknowledge him and trying to reach his dream. In a way Naruto is the strongest of all of us, not physically, or mentally, but he's definately stronger than anyone I've ever met emotionally. He's probably the peron who understands what you're going through better than anyone else, that's why he's acting like this, because he's concerned about you."

Inari seemed shocked by what she had just told him. She smiled towards the younger boy and got up "Goodnight Inari, sleep well."

The next morning Tazuna, Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura headed for the bridge, as for Naruto...well...he was still asleep. Kakashi had decided that he should have a little more rest since he had pushed himself so hard the previous day.

Upon reaching the bridge however it became obvious that today was not going to be in any way easy. The bridge workers were beat up and lying scattered across the bridge, although they were still alive. Sakura quickly started to carry the workers over to the side of the bridge and heal them as she did so - only a small amount though since she knew she needed to be prepared for the fight.

Then the mist started to thicken. The four of them, including Tazuna made a back to back square and a menacing voice rang out through the fog.

"Long time no see Kakashi. I see your still with those brats...the poor kid's shaking again."

It was true, Sasuke was shaking. But as a large amount of water clones appeared over the bridge he raised his head and replied in his most cocky voice that he was shaking from excitement. Sakura almost wanted to face plam at how arrogant he sounded. Honestly, he had learnt to tree-walk and now he thought he could take on a jounin level ninja? The urge to do so got stronger when Kakashi tells him to do it.

...Admittedly Sasuke throwing his weapons in such a way did manage to get rid of the clones, but still.

"Hmm. He saw through the water clones. That brat has grown. Looks like a rival has appeared, eh Haku?"

"It does indeed." A short way infront of they could see through the mist the real Zabuza, and a few steps behind him stood the same fake hunter-nin who had save him when they last fought.

"Oh, it seems our thinking was right on the mark Sakura. That masked one, he's obviously Zabuzas' comrade, standing right next to him and all..."

"I'll fight him." Sasuke told them, still as arrogantly as earlier. Sakura bit her lip slightly, Sasuke was good, she knew that, but she wasn't sure if he could deal with the other boy, something told her he shouldn't be underestimated. She wanted to help him, and to make sure he didn't get to badly hurt, but Kakashi had asked her the previous night that if they ended up fighting she should stay out of it as much as she could. While she could understand this, since she was after all a medic, and most of her techniques would either damage the bridge badly or not be very effective due to their surroundings and opponent, it didn't stop her from being worried. "Tricking us with that stupid act...I hate bastards like that the most."

"An impressive young man." Haku commented. "Even though the water clones have only 1/10th the strength of the original, still very impressive."

"But we have the advantage." Zabuza said harshly. "Go!"

"Yes."

The next moment Sasuke was defending himself from Haku's attack, the next they were engaged in an all out taijutsu battle. Sakura watched the battle intently, although she still kept a close watch on Zabuza just in case. At first it had seemed like they were evenly matched, and then they started to use weapons and ninjutsu and who had the upper hand kept seeming to change. When Sasuke managed to land a good hit, sending Haku flying backwards it became obvious that Sasuke thought he would be having no trouble at all, and that Kakashi also thought he would win with relative ease.

"It looks like I have the advantage in speed." Sasuke stated insultingly.

"I can't have you underestimating my team and calling them brat." Kakashi said conversationaly, but with a hard edge underneath. "Sasuke is the leaf village's number one rookie, Naruto is the hyperactive, show off number one loudest in the village, and Sakura is the prodigal daughter of Senju Tsunade."

"Senju!" Zabuza then started to chuckle. "Haku, do you realise? At this rate we'll be pushed back."

"Yeah. We can't have that." Haku made a seal and the water lying on the bridge rose up, encircling Sasuke before solidifing into and icy prison. Sakuras' eyes went wide as she watched, Sasuke was trapped in a jutsu made from a kekkai-genkai, and the likelyhood of him getting out was very slim.

_**Kura, I think we may have a problem.**_


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

**Battle on the Bridge**

Sakura swallowed as she stared at the icy dome in the middle of the bridge. She could sense Sasukes chakra inside of it, but it was decreasing rapidly, meaning he was most likely getting hurt and wasting chakra trying to escape.

Kakashi was still occupied with Zabuza, and she didn't know if there was any way for her to break the jutsu herself without hurting Sasuke. There was a strong possibility that if she was to hit the ice with a strong chakra-infused punch it would break, but it was also likely that Sasuke would get hit by alot of shattered ice, and she didn't want to risk it just yet.

Just when she was about to attempt to break it a large amount of white smoke like the one left behind when somebody transported itself appeared, with Naruto in the middle of it.

"Uzumaki Naruto...HAS FINALLY ARRIVED"

_...We really need to teach our teammates not to show off and call attention to themselves so much don't we._

_**Agreed...It's going to get them killed.**_

"Now that I'm here everything will be fine! The main character usually shows up in these sort of situation and instantly...KICK THE ENEMY'S ASS!"

_**YOUR NOT A BOOK CHARACTER, BAKA!**_

Zabuza was obviously annoyed by his loud entrance and sent shuuriken flying towards him. To his surprise, aswell as everyone elses they were knocked out of the air by senbon from...Haku?

"Haku," He growled. "what's the meaning of this?"

"Zabuza-san..these kids, please let me fight them my way."

"...So you don't want me to interfere, Haku? Your still as soft as always."

While Sakura was considering the implications of that statement Naruto entered the area enclosed by the mirrors and told Sasuke he was there to save him. Sakuras' consideration was interupted by an uncharacteristically long rant from Sasuke telling Naruto that he was an idiot, not a proper shinobi and various other insults based around the fact he had entered the mirrors.

After a second of hesitation Sakura started towards the mirrors in order to help them escape.

"Sakura," the girl in question stopped as she looked at Sasuke in confusion due to the tone of his voice. "protect Tazuna, Naruto and I will deal with Haku. You should conserve your chakra in case it's needed later."

"Yeah, yeah, Sakura-chan! Teme and I will do this! I'll show you how cool I am!"

Sakura nearly sweatdropped at Narutos' antics before narrowing her eyes at the two boys. "Fine, but you'd better not die, you two idiots got that! If you do I'll bring you back and kill you myself!"

Naruto grinned and Sasuke smirked weakly. "No need to worry about that." The dark haired boy replied.

"Yeah, you scare us to much for us to die on you Sakura-chan!"

_**Brat.**_

As though to prove their point Sasuke did a jutsu that allowed him to create a large fire ball from his mouth that he directed towards one of the mirrors...it would have worked better if it had managed to do anything, but either way Sakura conceded to her teammates wishes and returned to her spot infront of the bridge builder. They were her teammates, and the whole purpose of having a team would be defeated if she didn't believe in them.

Five minutes later the two seperate battles were showing no improvement. Sakura thought that it was likely for Kakashi to win based on what she knew, but the boys were starting to get more than a little bit beat up, and it was rather obvious that they were on the point of exhaustion.

At that point though she was distracted, Zabuza had created a thick mist that made it impossible for people to see, rendering Kakashi's sharingan useless. Sakura was still able to sense chakra, but it was muted due to the chakra in the fog, and suddenly she felt Zabuza's chakra behind her and Tazuna. Kakashi was inbetween them almost instantly, but there wouldn't be enough time for him to react.

Thankfully, having completed most of the jutsu earlier, Sakura only needed to make a single handsign before all three of them were enclosed in a wooden dome. Zabuzas' sword connected with the dome, but was unable to break through it, and the pinkette gave a soft sigh of relief. Quickly she grabbed Kakashis' hand, as he had wounded it earlier and healed it, as well as any other injuries she could find, before stepping back and telling him she could create an opening for him to exit from whenever he wanted.

He glanced towards the wood side, where every few seconds they could hear a thud as Zabuza was trying - and failing - to cut through it, and pointed straight up. Nodding, Sakura opened space at the top and Kakashi jumped out of her protection and back into battle.

Now all that was left for her to do was wait and have faith in her teammates - and of course make sure Tazuna didn't freak out.

Only a few moments later her eyes widened as she felt an almost demonic chakra coming from outside her dome. "Kyuubi" she breathed, recognising the chakra as similar to that of the other tailed beasts she had encountered.

"SAKURA!" She heard her sensei yell, even though she didn't need any prompting.

"Tazuna!" The man in question looked up, startled at being adressed. "I'm going to need to leave you here." Was all she said before creating a gap in the wooden wall and slipping out of it, running at full speed - which for her was almost as fast as regular jounin thanks to her mothers training - towards the now shattered mirrors and Naruto, who was currently surrounded by the Kyuubis' chakra.

Reaching him she grabbed onto his arm before he was able to move and attack Haku again. The boy immediately stiffened at her touch.

"Enough Kyuubi," she said, invoking her bloodline as she did so, "let Naruto be. He is not yours to control."

Slowly the Kyuubis' chakra disppeared from her senses, obviously unwilling to relinquish control, but not wanting to defy the Senju. Naruto himself collapsed onto his knees beside her, confused and disorientated.

Finally allowing herself to look around Sakura saw Sasuke lying on the ground with multiple senbon sticking out of him, barely breathing. From what she could see he would be alright even without her medical-jutsu, but she would definately check him over as soon as she could.

Turning she looked at Haku and winced at what she saw. His mask was broken, his clothes were ripped and bloody, and his eyes looked to be completely lifeless. He may be her enemy at the moment, but all of her medic-nin insticts were crying out for her to help him.

"I apologise for what just happened, we were not expecting the seal to weaken. If we had known it is unlikely we would have either made sure it wouldn't have happened or not allow Naruto to fight in the first place."

"Why did you stop him? I killed your precious friend but you can't let me be killed?"

"Firstly, Sasuke isn't dead yet, and he isn't going to be any time soon. And secondly, there is no point in killing you, and I'm not a fan of needless death."

Haku smiled slightly, although it was a bittersweet smile. "I would at this point prefer death. Zabuza-san has no need for weak shinobi. He has taken away my reason for existing."

Sakura couldn't help it, she gave an increadulous laugh. "Don't flatter yourself. You never stood any chance of being on par with the Kyuubi, if even a Kage can't subdue it without losing their life you certainly couldn't. The only reason I can do so is because I'm a Senju."

At that point Naruto seemed to come back to his senses. "Why! For a guy like that! .. HE'S A BAD GUY WHO TAKES MONEY FROM CRIMINALS! WHY IS THAT EYE-BROWLESS FREAK THE ONLY IMPORTANT PERSON TO YOU!"

Haku answered him by explaining pretty much his entire life. It was obvious that Naruto was stunned by what had occured with his parents, and also the fact that like him Haku had thought himself to be an unwanted person. Sakura was also shocked, but she had expected someting of the sort when she realised Haku had a bloodline trait.

"...Naruto-kun...please...kill me."

At the same time Haku said that statement Sakura felt and heard Kakashi manage to trap Zabuza using his dog summons.

"Please hurry up and kill me. Why are you hesitating?"

"I don't understand! Is being strong the only reason for you to be alive! Something other than fighting...You could have been acknowledged for something else!"

"The day I met you in the forest, I thought you were like me. You should be able to understand...I'm sorry you will have to stain your hands."

"Is this...is this the only way?"

"Yes...Please fufill your own dreams."

Sakura watched as Naruto started to run at Haku, a kunai in his hand. The fog was starting to clear.

Haku's eyes went wide as he realised what was happening. He grabbed Narutos wrist and redirected the kunai away from him.

"Sorry Naruto-kun. I can't die yet."

Understanding what Haku was about to do Sakura froze. It was one of those moments when you know what is about to happen, know that it won't end well, but are powerless to move, knowing there was nothing you can do to stop it. In a mixture of shock and horror the pinkette stared at the scene in front of her, seeing Haku plant himself in the middle of Kakashi and Zabuza, taking a chidori in the chest.

Sakura had seen alot of terrible things in her short life; the bodies of her fathers and his family, bandits after her mother was through with them, the results of her mothers drunken rage to name only a few. Despite that though she had never actually seen someone die infront of her. Her mother and Shizune had always sheltered her as much as they could, preventing her from dealing with the worst of life.

Intellectually she knew about death, that even if Haku hadn't intercepted the hit they would likely have had to kill him, but the reality of it was just...it didn't seem right for someone, anyone, to die infront of her when all of her medic training was for saving lives.

In a dazed sort of state Sakura stared at his body, barely registering Gatou appeared with a mob of mercenaries, Zabuza killing so, so many of them including Gatou, being killed himself, Sasuke waking up, Inari appearing with a mob of villagers, Naruto and Kakashi making shadow clones, the survivers of the mercenaries fleeing. Feeling a hand on her shoulder the pinkette finally snapped out of it, looking up at Kakashi who seemed to smile at her, though it was hard to tell with the mask.

"I think Sasuke might need your help."

More than anything else that pulled her out of her thoughts. She was a medic. _No medical ninja shall ever stop treatment until the lives of their party members have come to an end_. That came before all else. Turning to her teammate she began healing.

Two weeks later the bridge was complete and everyone was back to full health. Zabuza and Haku had both been buried with honor just outside the village. Team 7 was standing infront of the bridge saying goodbye to Tazuna and his family. Sakura was currently giggling at Naruto and Inari - if she didn't know better she would have thought they were related.

"Inari, your sad right? It's alright to cry!"

"I'm not going to cry! But you can Naruto!"

"Fine." The blond spun around and started walking. "Later." As soon as they were no longer facing eachother both boys started to silently silently sob, streams of tears falling down their faces.

Casting one last look back at the bridge builder and his family Sakura followed her teammates.

"Lets get home fast so I can have Iruka-sensei buy me some ramen! Oh, and I have to tell Konohamaru about my amazing feats!"

"Dobe."

"What did you say Teme!"

An orange book appeared out of nowhere in their senseis' hand.

"Do you have hearing problems Dobe?"

"EHH! Sakura-chan Sasuke's being a Teme again!"

"As if she's going to take your side Dobe."

_**perverted giggle**_

"Of course she will! Right Sakura-chan!"

They had finished their first C-rank turned A-rank. Supposedly this would mature those involved, marking some sort of important life-altering event. Sakura should have known nothing would have changed.


End file.
